The mighty Société Générale de Belgique, a supercombine that controls a fourth of Belgium's industry and half of the Congo's, is growing mightier still. Last week it announced that its Banque de la Société Générale, by far the largest bank in Belgium, would gobble up two other banks, the Banque d'Anvers and the Société Belge de Banque. The combine's banking subsidiary will thereby increase its deposits by nearly 20% to more than $2 billion.
An even more striking effect of the merger is that it will link la Générale with another Belgian giant: the Solvay chemical empire, one of the world's biggest family-owned firms. Solvay has long held a controlling interest in the Société Belge de Banque; but the bank's limited deposits of $175 million have proved increasingly inadequate for Solvay's growing needs. Solvay can now tap the vast resources of the banks with which it is merging, and la Générale will strengthen its connection with one of the world's most promising industries. Besides, through Antwerp's Banque d'Anvers, the company establishes a firmer foothold in Belgium's fastest-growing industrial area.
La Générale is also growing in the Congo. Although the Congo government itself is now the biggest stockholder in the company's ore-mining subsidiary Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, Premier Moise Tshombe, an old friend of Union Minière, does not interfere with Brussels leadership—a fact that has encouraged the firm to increase its investment at the rate of $20 million a year. The Belgian company still suffers from some political tribulation. In former rebel territory, where ten of its employees were murdered, production of cotton and palm oil has been severely curtailed, and on some plantations has come to a virtual standstill. Half of the production of its diamond mines is stolen. But la Générale is less worried by these facts than by another fear: that the Congo's present inflation may speed up and cause widespread damage to the economy.